Newspaper

Well ever since my childhood we used to have two newspapers at home. One in local language, and the other English. I have grown up reading them on a daily basis, it was an addiction - I should admit.

Then came the age of disillusions. The realization that every thing that is printed is not always the exact truth of truth. Printed words can be bought. Heard that from the very mouth of reporters.

Own keen observation too spoke in favour of the word of mouths. There were so many discrepancies, silence about the real problems uproar against the not so grave problems.

Own encounter with some of them also said the same thing, they don’t act the way they preach, or worse, preach others to act.

Still I am unable to shake off this addiction.

Even though I read news on internet but still I prefer having a newspaper at home every day. Though won’t mind more than one.

It’s great to have so much information wrapped in just a few pages, right at your doorstep, every morning.

I miss them when they are on holidays or on the days when my vendor does not drop them, like on 25th and will not give again on tomorrow I guess.

Impact of news

Current age is the age of diminishing distances, in every aspect. Gone are those days when our ancestors lived in tiny shells of their villages or small towns. They were ignorant about even their countries.

Now we wake up and open the newspaper to read every thing about this world. Even outside this planet. Sometimes they please us, sometimes upset, sometimes confuse and sometimes scare.

So, even though our small world is happy when we read about alarming rise in atrocities or complexities can we really be as free as a gust of wind? Which blows without any worry or weight?

What should be our stand? Not all of us can jump into the field. There are quite a lot of people who don’t have enough resources to do so, or enough motivation, but they feel the shock or sadness. And that shock or sadness is genuine, not a show off.

When we are introduced to these knowledge on every day basis, slowly their impact goes away. People start to choke and look for respite in light things. Is that wrong?

Are we becoming casual or feeling-less or are overstuffed with dark newses?

Happy Holi

Tomorrow is Holi. The festival of colour in India, a festival in which everyone participates (forgetting every diversity or distance). May the harmony and colours of Holi spread all over the world.

A sweet responsibility

Well I am the backstreet driver in this lane. I sheepishly admit that I have handled children quite a lot but with minimal responsibilities. But, then again, any parent who is bringing them to earth should be the one realizing the golden truth, that they should not be brought to earth just for the fun of it. One should acknowledge the responsibilities too.

Children are not pets, toys or robots. They won’t grow up within a year and become absolutely independent. They won’t sit and stand up as per our order. They will certainly act like live beings and live beings with free will. I have seen that the parents who get most exasperated with children are the ones who themselves forget these points. So, who should be blamed? The children or the parents?

I believe that children under five years of age should be handled delicately and with extreme patience. They should be guided to the proper ways of behaving but always remembering that they don’t understand what we say. So harshness should be strictly avoided and extreme patience should be practiced. Yes, once in a while a soft reprimand is required (sometimes they really drive people crazy) but it should have to be soft.


After five up-to moving out of the shadow of parents the children should be firmly guided. Not ordered around or nagged. They certainly need guidance but nagging will only make them rebellious. I really don’t know why parents nag or use sarcasm to their own children. Does it not reflect their own weakness of personality? I have noticed myself that children very clearly understand words spoken to them and they are over eager to obey to elders till they reach their teenage. But if a child is properly guided till his or her teenage then handling a teenager is not much problem to the parent. None of my nephew or nieces or siblings was rebels. Why?

Nagging or sarcasm is the worst poison for any relationship. A child should be taken as a sweet responsibility for twenty years to come. If you are not keen for that long a project you should not have one. Why bring a child into a being when you cant give a life to him or her?

Indian and Pakistan

It’s high time that these two countries should sincerely try to live like good neighbours.

It’s a shame the way we two have been squabbling for decades. Both the parties should be a little or more guilty and eager to mend their ways so we could live like ideal neighbours and pursue better grounds than battlegrounds.


Though we have been acting exactly like a pair of siblings since 1947; we should try not to further hostility. If the common people of India and Pakistan bond with each other the hostility will disappear by itself. We should give that a sincere try. Cricketers, artists are common people, they are not waging wars.

We have been pulling down each others for decades, we should seriously think about permanently destroying/curing this mindset and flourish together.

Well, I appreciate the courage which both Khans have shown by speaking out their mind. Which every person can and should. In my eyes both of them are true Indians and will always be so before criticizing or insulting them we may do a little soul search, in case if we are sowing only the seeds of hatred for our neighbours.

Vengeance and moral responsibility

We hear this comment too many times when truth is spoken out loud don’t we? “Oh, forget it, he is just settling his scores. Avenging his insult.”

What’s the difference between vengeance and speaking out truth? I often ponder about this. By nature I am not vengeful. There was a time when I used to always forgive, and forget and get too eager to repair the relationship. Then with time I learnt all relationships are not worthy of being kept. Some of them should be discarded ASAP others after good testing.

Even now, barring very few hand-counted cases the feeling of revenge has not occurred in my heart. I usually throw away that person from my life with the earnest prayer that truth and justice will be delivered sooner or later. After that I seal that person out of my lifer. There is rarely any return path.

People who share their true, bitter experiences with others are not always vengeful. A common misconception which often stops us from preventing ourselves from committing the very same mistakes. I too have done it while I was growing up. Now I give heed to these words of bitter wisdom and be wary.

As most of the normal human beings in life I too have faced my share of injustice. And I have decided to share them with others, because in that way people can get a hunch about what life is all about, and what can be expected from fellow human beings when you are in a rough spot or when you are too innocent and soft natured.

Life will become a lot easier for others if we share our experiences, both the bad and the good ones. So that smart people can take their lessons from both and work for a better life.

Strife

In this overcrowded planet the vessels (us) are viciously hitting each other. One day its “attack on Indians in Australia.” The next day its “Mumbai is for Maharashtrians.”

Can’t we share the whole world? Why not? I am not asking people to instantly dream like John Lennon did in “Imagine”. But can’t we work toward it, slowly?

It’s true that when a person relocates and strife occurs with the local people, it’s mostly because of multiple reasons, not one.

Sometimes people feel they are stealing their bread, sometimes their cultures clashes. Sometimes one of the quarrelling parties invites that trouble- by bullying or by looking down on others.

Hatred can never be solution of any thing. We should grow out of the concept that we can bully others or we can divide the world into tiny segments.

It’s not necessary that the host is always at fault, sometimes the guest or freshers too cross their limits. Any one who is going to Rome and planning to settle down there should either act like Romans or should not do any thing which infuriates them.

I personally have seen people of other provinces that live in west Bengal look down upon Bengalis or say insulting words mentioning the word “Bengali”. Bengalis are infamous for their timid nature, every one else might not be so. Its but natural that people will be protective toward their roots and identity.

If we observe then we will realize that people who keep a low profile in a new place are usually ignored/accepted by locals, for good or for bad. But if we stand out too much apart from locals then strife begins and sometimes takes ugly form.

When strife occurs both parties should analyze their behaviour and I believe both will have to modify themselves. Actually if people act in a matured manner then strife don’t occur at all.

Purpose

Wise people say every thing should be done with purpose. I am not that strict about it, but I think people should do most of the thing purposefully.

One should not waste too much time in life drifting aimlessly. My suggestion is mainly for the people who are either looking for job or are home-managers, that is, housewives or househusbands or home runners like me, who has selected managing home above managing office/career. But career-driven people can also think about these hours dedicated to future.

We should always dedicate some hours in life to spend on things which will build our future. Now, that can be any thing. It can be pursuing a good hobby like reading, listening to good songs, methodical studying or gardening.

If we read the biography or autobiography of every person with achievement we will note that they always have dedicated a few hours from their days to purposefully do something. That might have been any thing, painting, reading….

These things were done after doing day to day chores. They often had a very busy life, more busy than us still they took out some time from that schedule to do something which will contribute to their character, personality or life.

I myself have done a lot of things, starting from studying, writing, painting to gardening. Doctors say if we keep our brain busy that will save us from brain diseases like Alzheimer and if we keep our body busy that will save us from a crippled body at old age.

Unselfish

It’s a common human folly or habit to look suspiciously at the person who is trying to help him or her without any visible motive or any profit for himself. But it’s a truth which we should remember that fortunately there are people in this world who help and love others unselfishly. So when we receive unselfish love or help in place of suspecting we can be cautious and thankful.

It’s foolish to trust someone blindly and get hurt. But that’s better than insulting a person who was helping or loving you unselfishly.

It’s good for our own happiness that we treat acts of kindness without suspicion and with gratitude. Of course one can be wary, but there is a difference between wariness and suspicion. Wariness just keeps us on guard and suspicion narrows our vision. As a result we sometimes fail to see things which were actually good for us. End up falling in the same pit, even though we were warned.

Someone to love

I love reading quotes and mulling over them. Its been years since I have read a quote which roughly translated that we need someone we can love in our life more than someone who loves us. When I first read that I raised an eyebrow and thought is that really so…

Then life started to gather various types of experiences, some really harsh truths and realities showed up and I for the first time realized the truth. We desperately need someone we can love blindly. Someone or something. It may be God, our work, our hobby, our passion or a pet. The core truth to me is we can survive without being loved but life becomes bleak if we don’t have something/someone around us who we can blindly love.

After realizing this golden truth I have realized another thing, why people with too hectic/ stressed life often keep a pet. Because its unselfish affection brings out the best type of affection from its owners.

So, I am not one of those (never was) who raise their eyebrow when a man leaves his cat a million dollar in his will.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was born on 23 January, 1897 in Cuttack (Orissa) to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi. Netaji was the ninth child among eight brothers and six sisters. His father, Janakinath Bose, was an affluent and successful lawyer in Cuttack and received the title of "Rai Bahadur". He later became a member of the Bengal Legislative Council.

He passed his B.A. in Philosophy from the Presidency College in Calcutta. He was strongly influenced by Swami Vivekananda's teachings and was known for his patriotic zeal as a student. He also adored Vivekananda as his spiritual Guru. Subhash Chandra Bose was a very intelligent and sincere student but never had much interest in sports.

In 1916, Netaji reportedly beat and thrashed one of his British teachers E F Otten. The professor made a racist remark against the Indian students. As a result, Bose was expelled from the Presidency College and banished from Calcutta University. The incident brought Netaji in the list of rebel-Indians. In December 1921, Bose was arrested and imprisoned for organizing a boycott of the celebrations to mark the Prince of Wales's visit to India.

His father wanted Netaji to become a civil servant and therefore, sent him to England to appear for the Indian Civil Service Examination. Bose was placed fourth with highest marks in English. But his urge for participating in the freedom movement was intense that in April 1921, Bose resigned from the coveted Indian Civil Service and came back to India. Soon, he left home to become an active member of India's independence movement. He, later joined the Indian National Congress, and also elected as the president of the party.

People began to recognize Netaji by his name and associated him with the freedom movement. Netaji had emerged as a popular youth leader. He was admired for his great skills in organization development.

In 1928, a difference in the opinion between the old and new members surfaced. The young leaders, wanted a "complete self-rule and without any compromise". The senior leaders were in favor of the "dominion status for India within the British rule".

The differences were swelling between moderate Gandhi and aggressive Subhash Chandra Bose. Subhash Chandra Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, a presidential candidate, nominated by Gandhiji himself, but without any second thought he resigned from the party and formed the Forward Bloc in 1939.

During the Second World War in September, 1939, Subhash Chandra Bose decided to initiate a mass movement. He started uniting people from all over the country. There was a tremendous response to his call and the British promptly imprisoned him. In jail, he refused to accept food for around two weeks. When his health condition deteriorated, fearing violent reactions across the country, the authority put him under house-arrest.

During his house-arrest, in January, 1941, Netaji made a planned escape. He first went to Gomoh in Bihar and from there he went on to Peshawar (now, Pakistan). He finally reached Germany and met Hitler. Netaji had been living together with his wife Emilie Schenkl in Berlin. In 1943, Netaji left for south-east Asia and raised the army. The group was later named by Netaji, as the Indian National Army (INA).

During his sojourn to England, he met with the leaders of British Labor Party and political thinkers including Clement Attlee, Arthur Greenwood, Harold Laski, G.D.H. Cole, and Sir Stafford Cripps. Netaji also discussed with them about the future of India. It must also be noted that it was during the regime of the Labor Party (1945-1951), with Attlee as the Prime Minister, that India gained independence.

Although it was believed that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash, his body was never recovered. Too many theories have been put forward regarding his abrupt disappearance. The government of India set up a number of committees to investigate the case and come out with truth, none succeeded.


http://www.culturalindia.net

hi! I am back!

Well, my old computer finally closed its cyber eyes on 18th Jan, after serving for two years and hiccuping for last six months or more.

I am back again with a new one. Wish me luck, lots of it, because i am computer addict and living without computer is really tough for me. but i survived. the courtsey goes to a tiny kitten who has been rescued and sheltered in my humble abode. she keeps me busy all day. busy and entertained.

those of you who have missed me please bear with me for another week because i will have to read your blogs and your comments :)

Wishing you all the very, very best.

To be at peace with oneself

Being at peace with oneself is the best thing we can do for ourselves.

 

A person who is at peace with himself is at peace with the whole world.

 

When something goes wrong, we often take up the noble duty of criticizing ourselves mercilessly, ignoring the fact that every human being has follies, and he has full right to fail once in a while. In place of blaming or cursing ourselves if we take a stock of our own nature, we will always be calm. At peace with ourselves. Even if we commit a great blunder.

 

To be at peace with oneself one has to know oneself thoroughly and accept, love and forgive. Humbly acknowledge one’s virtues and try to improve them. Accept one’s vices with humility and try to rectify them if possible. If not then try to control them as much as possible.

 

A person who can’t do this is really one of the unluckiest persons.

True religion

I am not one of them who think religion is an outdated concept. I believe in God and I believe that most of the religions teach a good way of life. And I prefer to pay a lot of attention to all the religious words and pick up the best ones for me and try to follow them.

 

I am very lazy, so instead of raking my own mind for a suitable code of conduct I prefer the knowledge left by my ancestors. All I do is brush them up and make them suitable for the present age. I don’t follow any one blindly, not even myself.

 

I believe a true religion never provokes its followers to mock, insult or harm any innocent living being.  It never boasts about its superiority above other religions. It never insults, mocks or berates the belief of others. It just simply unfolds its beauty like  a flower and let every one decide its worth.

Another martyr : Satish Shetty

He had the courage of speaking out against corruption. The guts of challenging the powerful, corrupted people. So they chased him and killed him. If it was in some Western country I would have been hopeful that he will get his justice in Court. Can I hope the same here in India too? Chances are very slim, so all I can say that my deepest, wholehearted tributes are for him and all brave souls like him. Who had the courage of standing up and fighting evil.

 

I will wait for the day when the blood of these martyrs will result in punishing the evil-doers. Or better, their blood shall not be shed at all. The law will do its job and evil doers wont dare to flourish that much..

Power and corruption

Why power is directly related to corruption? That is a question which has haunted me since my childhood days. I guess if we give someone ultimate power and convince him of that fact there are slim chances that he won’t abuse it.

 

There are very rare examples of such persons, who have the self control of an angel, who after being bestowed with immense power have not misused it. A little greater number succeeds in avoiding abuse though. They only end up misusing the power.

 

In today’s world power should be laid on people, organizations in such a manner that it can be revoked if needed. No one should be given the ultimate power because it certainly corrupts.

Ignorance about human trafficking

Ignorance can be really deadly in today’s world.  I was reading a news item in a newspaper just a few days back. It really was painful. A group of Indians eating langar in an Afghan gurudwara. They have been tricked by cunning agents there and have lost all their money, even passport and visa.

 

Government should be thinking about this trend seriously. It’s becoming a every day affair like human trafficking. Along with the government we educated persons too should try to spread the cautions against human trafficking of any sort.

 

Its really painful to think that a person sold off every thing that he owned hoping for a beautiful future and ended up in a foreign land, abused.

 

honour

Recently I was discussing about honour with some of my friends. I never think about any thing superficially, I either think or do not think about it. So my thought express started its journey toward the station called reputation or honour.

 

Being born in a country where women burnt themselves alive in fear of being dishonoured I can understand this passion very easily. I have grown up reading about Rani Padmini, the divine beauty who killed herself happily so she does not have to surrender to an emperor. Who of course wanted to legally marry her. In childhood I adored her courage and after growing up I realized her self respect.

 

Some people will follow her without hesitation and others will compromise. Human passions are really a very interesting field to study, a very enjoyable show to watch. I love to gather as much as I can about human nature, feelings and passions and then watch the show called human life.

Respecting oneself

People often think that I am arrogant. The reason is I don’t think that I am inferior to any one. I always treat others with respect and demand the same from them. I think I don’t have any right to disrespect others and vice versa unless one crosses one’s limit, that is, insults or misuses the respect bestowed upon him.

 

I think there is a difference between humility and inferiority complex. We all should practice humility, that is, if we are blessed with a talent we should never think that we are something extraordinary. But we should always think that we are human beings and we have full right to live a life of dignity and respect.

 

A person who does not respects oneself can’t respect others either. He may get intimidated by others or cower before them, but can he respect them? I believe not.

 

I believe in a simple policy. I walk my path with confidence on myself and others. I neither think that I am inferior to anyone, nor do I think I am superior to any one. We all have our vices and virtues.

Marriage vs live together

Whether to make Live in relationships legal … This is one of the latest debates which is troubling traditional Indian minds. What are the plus points of live together?

 

1. You can check thoroughly before marrying if your spouse is as tempting as he was as a suitor. You will be able to judge each other completely before taking the holy oath of marriage.
2. As you have checked each other thoroughly before marrying, chances of divorce or marital dispute may slice down a lot.
3. If you two don’t find each other compatible you will be able to walk away without feeling social stigma which today’s youth have to face, branding it as immoral lifestyle.
4. You wont be tied up with a person you don’t like or have stopped liking for the rest of your life.

 

Now the minus points…

 

1.                  If your partner is a flirt under cover he or she may use and dump you without even looking back. Which in case of marriage law will force him to.

2.                  The health hazards of multiple broken relationships with multiple partners, which will become an inseparable part of live-in relationships once the social stigma is gone.

3.                  The risky life of children born out of such relationships, what will happen to them when their parents will enter one relationship after another along with them? How will they be treated by the other partners?

4.                  Reaping all sorts of profit including monetary will be easy for a untrustworthy partner. You may walk back to home one fine evening and see your mate has disappeared with all you have given him, or all she has bought with your money.

 

Now comes the holy matrimony. Its pluses are-

 

1.                  If two stable persons get married there is high possibility that they will live a life together. Of course with some up and down, but they will mend this relationship.

2.                  Two serious spouses will give a healthy environment for each other, children.

3.                  As their life will be tension free regarding family they will be better citizens and happier citizens.

4.                  In today’s world of STD and HIV one mate is the most desperately needed thing in world.

 

Minus points of holy matrimony:

 

1.                  If your spouse is exactly your opposite and you are somehow trapped together, and none is interested to change, you both are doomed.

2.                  If you both have separate perspective on every thing under the sky you both will both live a choking life.

3.                  If your spouse is a cheater.. on any ground, it can be in love, duty, behaviour any thing you are simply doomed.

4.                  If every thing else is perfect but you are not able to love each other, your life will feel like being wasted.